


Comfort

by Rachel_Lu



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Falling In Love, First Kiss, Hurt/Comfort, Nine is a sweetie, Post-Episode: s01e06 Dalek
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-07
Updated: 2017-09-07
Packaged: 2018-12-24 21:11:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,971
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12021078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rachel_Lu/pseuds/Rachel_Lu
Summary: She went looking for him after their incident with Van Stoutten, but was not exactly expecting what she got





	Comfort

**Author's Note:**

> Post Dalek fluff for @doctorroseprompts on tumblr. I think this is my first proper time writing Nine, so enjoy:)

“Doctor?” She knocked on his door, pressing her ear to the wood and really, being dreadfully invasive.  He’d disappeared shortly after Adam had come on board, gushing about how ‘bloody huge’ the ship was.  Rose had enjoyed it for exactly two seconds before growing irritated, because it was clear that Adam hadn’t really come along for the adventure.  He seemed to want something else more, and it wasn’t something that Rose didn’t want to give him.

So instead she’d told him to go to bed and the TARDIS had thoughtfully added a very advanced telly into his room so that he wouldn’t want to follow her. Rose thanked the ship, relieved that the TARDIS knew so much about blokes.

And then she had gone in search of the Doctor.

He had been difficult to find, as he wasn’t in the console room, nor was he in the galley or media room.  Finally, the TARDIS had guided her to the Doctor’s oak bedroom door, and Rose approached it eagerly, wanting to make sure that he was alright.

“Doctor?” She knocked again, and when he didn’t reply, the TARDIS flicked the lights over Rose’s head.  Taking the hint, Rose opened the door and came into the room slowly.  It was darkened, the only light coming from the tiny lamp on the Doctor’s bedside table.

She’d never been in the Doctor’s room before, and she probably shouldn’t have taken the time to examine it too closely, but she did it anyway.  The room was nearly barren, the bed made with navy blue sheets, tucked in in a military style at the edges.  There was a desk in the corner, covered with papers that were definitely sorted, and everything was clean and tidy. She thought that something would be in disarray, but nothing seemed to be.

And sat on the edge of the perfect bed, was the Doctor.  He wore a t-shirt and loose pajama pants that made her insides twist, and he was bent over, his elbows on his knees.  

She shook herself and stepped farther into the room.  She shut the door behind her so that they were properly alone.  She cleared her throat. “Doctor.”

He looked up slowly, blue eyes forlorn and dark. “Rose, how did you find-”

“The TARDIS gave me a little hint,” She said, smiling.

He nodded. “She really does like you,” he said.  He ran his hand over his head, bristly hair providing resistance against his fingertips.  “You should go,” he said firmly.

“No,” She walked forward. “That Dalek thing, yeah, you’d seen it before.”

“The Time War,’ he relented, “They destroyed and destroyed with no remorse,” he said softly, “And I stopped it.”

“How did you stop it?” Rose asked, coming closer to him and sitting on the bed next to him, but at the same time, as far away as possible.  She didn’t want to get into his personal space without his permission.

“Rose, if I told you, you would want to leave.”

“No I wouldn’t,” Rose protested,”I’m never going to want to leave you,” she said, then bit her lip, afraid she’d said too much.

He blinked at her. “Why-”

She reached out and touched his shoulder. “I promise,” she said softly, “This life, being with you, it’s something that I- I could never replace it, and I wouldn’t want to.”  her voice was quiet and sincere, and the Doctor’s eyes narrowed in on her so quickly that she thought she was going to melt with how intently he was looking at her.

“You really want to know?” he asked quietly, his Northern burr nearly swallowing his words.  

“Yes, Doctor,” she said, and she thought she definitely imagined the shiver that ran through him.  

“I…I destroyed my kind,” he whispered, looking away from her and down at his hands.  ‘I wiped out my entire race to stop the war.  I thought I wiped out the Daleks too, but one of them survived, and that’s just not fair.”  He slammed his fist into his knee.

Before he could get any more violent with himself she reached over and took his hand. “That couldn’t have been an easy decision,” she said cautiously, “And you may not believe this, but I don’t blame you.”

“How could you not blame me?” The Doctor demanded, trying to take his hand back from her.  She wouldn’t let him, needed to hold onto him. He finally stopped resisting her and tilted his head back.  

She shifted closer to him, wanting to give him a hug, and when her hand touched his shoulder, she flinched back, staring at the hand that had obviously hurt him.

“No, Rose, it’s alright,” he said coaxingly, “Just some radiation burns.  They’ll be healed by tomorrow.”  
“Radiation burns?”

“Ahh… See, I wasn’t going to tell you this,” he said, offering her a tight grin that didn’t make it all the way to his eyes. “Van Stoutten sort of… Found out I was a Time Lord and started, well, experimenting on me.’

Rose’s bottom lip started trembling and the Doctor rolled his eyes.

“Oh, here she goes. Rose.  It wasn’t your fault.”  
“I was swanning off enjoying myself, looking at all those alien artifacts with Adam and you were being hurt, and I didn’t even know.”

The Doctor pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head. “Rose, stop blaming yourself.,” he said, “I can take care of myself, have been doing for centuries. I’m fine.”

Regardless of his burns, she couldn’t stop herself from throwing herself into his arms. He sighed and hugged her back, feigning indifference at first, but the longer she hugged him, the tighter his grip on her got until she was astride one knee with her arms wrapped firmly around his neck. He pressed his nose into her shoulder, closing his eyes.  Rose allowed him closeness that he hadn’t felt in centuries, and she made him feel alive.  Not that he could ever tell her that, really.

She was crying openly now, and the Doctor felt the stone around his hearts melt a little more. “Rose-”

“I’m sorry,” she said, pulling back and framing his face in her hand, all his firm angles pressed pleasantly against her palms.  “I care about you so much, Doctor, and I never want to see you hurt.”  
“Rose, I would’ve been fine,” he insisted, hands holding her waist.  “I promise.  It was nothing I couldn’t handle.”

She studied his face, the lines marking his forehead and cheeks.  He was dark and brooding, sure, but he had laugh lines and she knew it might be because of her.

He sniffed and patted her waist.  “You should go check on that boyfriend of yours.”

“He’s not my boyfriend,” Rose said firmly, grabbing his ears so that he was forced to look at her.

“Oi,” he said, “Watch the ears.”

She gave a watery laugh. “They’re like handlebars.”  
He scowled at her, “You just don’t want to make me feel bad when you see that Adam is much better for you than an old man like me.”

“What do you even mean by that?” Rose asked. “Adam isn’t my anything.  I just don't want to talk about him, not when you’ve been hurt.  I should’ve never asked him along in the first place.”

He frowned. “You don’t know me enough to try and protect me.”

Rose scowled at him. ‘I know that you are the most important man in my life. I know that you make me disgustingly happy. I love traveling with you, and even though you’ve done terrible things, I know you did it for a reason.  You had to have, because you are not evil, Doctor. You just aren’t.”

“How can you be so sure?” He demanded, angry now, “How can you know that that I won’t kill you?”

“Because I know!” she shouted. ‘I know you, whether you want me to or not. I can read you like a bloody book, Doctor, because I care about you.  I asked the TARDIS to help me find you, and I all but read Adam a bedtime story and tucked him in so that he would leave me alone and I could go find you.”

He blinked at her. “Why would you-”

Without thinking of the consequences, or what, perhaps, she would say after she did it, she leaned forward and kissed him full on the mouth.  He startled, but her grip on his ears held him tight against her, and after several moments, he couldn’t resist anymore.  He took the kiss over from her, softened it, make it a little less aggressive.  She followed it, transferring her grip to hold onto his head.  She was about to move to clutch at his broad shoulders, but she remembered his burns before she could get there. She pulled away from his mouth and pulled back, shifting herself so she was completely astride his lap.  She tugged down the collar of his shirt and saw the red burn marks that were already beginning to heal.  She leaned forward and pressed a kiss to one of them, and he let out a sigh, running one hand up under her top.

“So, are you going to let me love you?” She asked him softly, kissing farther down his chest.  She suddenly looked colossally nervous. “Um, you know, if that’s okay.”

“I can’t go back,” he said, “I can’t go back from this.  If you- if you’ve decided that you want me, it’s it.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that you and I… I’m telepathic, and if we… It would be incredibly difficult for me to see you off, see you happily married to a human man.”

“Don’t want one of those.”  She shook her head. “All I want is right here in front of me, you and this life.  That’s all I’ve wanted for a long time,” she said.

“Since when?”

“Like… Cardiff,” she said.  She looked up into his face, brown meeting blue in an expression of love that nearly turned him inside out.

He blinked. “I’m not pretty,” he blurted out.

“You’re beautiful,” she told him, touching his cheek.  “And you make hard decisions that I could never imagine.  Like everything with the Slitheen. I saw the war in your eyes, Doctor, and I saw it today, when you screamed at that Dalek. It’s not about killing for you, it never could be.  That’s how I know you’re not a monster.”

He looked at her with awe in his eyes, and he wanted nothing more than to kiss her again.  “Rose…”

She was in a state of almost-crying again, and she wrapped her arms carefully around his neck, snuggling close to him.  He held her tight and pressed kisses to her neck, holding her tight.

“I came here to comfort you,” she said, “And now you’re comforting me.”

“That’s what I’m for, love,’ he said, and grimaced when the endearment slipped off his tongue.  When she gripped him tighter, he had a feeling that she really didn’t mind.

They held each other for a long time, until the Doctor cautiously kissed her neck, and moved kisses towards her mouth.  She leaned back and maneuvered to capture his lips, hands at the back of his neck.  They kissed like that for what felt like ages and also not enough time at all, until finally the Doctor pulled back and settled his forehead on her shoulder.

“Am I doing a good job of comforting you?” she asked softly, a teasing note in her voice.

“Yes, Rose, I don’t think I’ll ever wanted to be comforted any other way.”

Things didn’t, ahem, escalate till the next morning, as the Doctor was exhausted, but he slept curled up with Rose, and the TARDIS hummed happily, knowing that they would never sleep alone. 


End file.
